Where do I begin?

The first step is to think about what information you need to answer your question. This seems obvious, and to a certain extent you are probably already doing it. But a more systematic approach will reward you.

You should think about:

1. finding the focus of your question

2. what the key concepts are

3. your understanding of these concepts

4. alternative terms to describe these concepts

5. where you should start looking

Finding the focus

To find relevant information you need to focus on what is being asked. Think about what you need to find by asking questions about your topic.

For example, to find out about How has the United States' relationship with Japan changed since 1945?, some relevant questions might be:

• What are the element(s) of the relationship? Business, political, popular opinion, military, legal, trade?
• What was the state of the relationship in 1945? What is it now?
• Has the relationship been affected by other countries?

You may need to consult some background material, such as encyclopedias or general works to help you. Your answers may depend on the context in which the question is being asked (e.g. are you studying Business or History?).

Identifying and defining key concepts

Try breaking down your question into its key parts or concepts. This will be especially helpful if you are searching in the library catalogue or other databases. It is important that you understand what you are looking for, and in what context terms are used. English can be a very tricky language, and an imprecise use of words can lead to irrelevant results.

To find out the meaning of words, try dictionaries.

For background information about a specific concept, try encyclopedias.

Finding alternative terms

To increase the likelihood of finding relevant material, you need to think about alternative terms that can be used to describe the same concepts.

You should think about:

• synonyms (e.g. mobile telephones, cellular telephones)
• plural/singular forms (e.g. women, woman)
• spelling variations(e.g. behaviour, behavior)
• variations of a root word (e.g. feminism, feminist, feminine)
• acronyms (e.g. chief executive officer, CEO)

Sometimes using a thesaurus or specialised dictionary might help, particularly if you aren't clear about some terminology or concepts. Here are some alternatives for the concepts in the question How has the United States' relationship with Japan changed since 1945?.

Concept	Alternatives
United States'	United States U.S. Americans America
relationship	relations
Japan	Japan Japanese